This motto captures a vital Floridian – and American – idea. Long part of the state and national ethos, Florida adopted it as the official state motto in 2006. It is minted on our currency and has been since 1864. President Eisenhower signed the law making it our official national motto in 1956.

It is often displayed on our government buildings and monuments and printed on the license plates of our cars. President Theodore Roosevelt once remarked the motto should be posted “wherever it will tend to arouse and inspire a lofty emotion in those who look thereon.”

For this very reason, careful viewers of the annual State of the Union Address will see the motto inscribed in gold letters above the speaker’s rostrum in the U.S. House of Representatives. To date, over 600 cities and counties nationwide display the motto in their offices, chambers, official seals, and even on the outside of police and sheriff’s cruisers.

And this is no modern invention; the motto reflects values long part of the American psyche. In fact, by the War of 1812, this national sentiment was so entrenched that Francis Scott Key, in penning the fourth verse of our national anthem, "The Star-Spangled Banner," wrote: “And this be our motto—‘In God is our trust.’”

In short, "In God We Trust" is as American as it gets.

A few activists might rattle their rhetorical sabers at the Florida Legislature and try to claim that a patriotic school display of the state motto somehow violates the U.S. Constitution. Claims like that have no foundation in the law and should be ignored.

Every federal appeals court to consider lawsuits involving the national motto has upheld it. The U.S. Supreme Court itself, in Lynch v. Donnelly, described the motto as a lawful “reference to our religious heritage,” comparable to the recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance.

Even the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, not known for its conservative leanings, in Aronow v. United States held that the motto is “patriotic or ceremonial [in] character” and “has nothing whatsoever to do with the establishment of religion.” And, 40 years later, in Newdow v. Lefevre, the Ninth Circuit re-affirmed that holding.

There are few things in our country today more unifying across the cultural and legal spectrum than that motto.

During a time of confusion and anger following the recent horrors in a Florida school, the Florida House rightly has provided for a visible reminder of a common state and national heritage.

It’s an appropriate decision for times such as these.

Roger Byron is senior counsel to First Liberty Institute, a nonprofit law firm dedicated to defending religious freedom for all Americans. Read more at FirstLiberty.org.